27/03/2009

Royal Caribbean International and its luxury brand Celebrity Cruises have announced that they will be working with discount airline easyJet.

The new collaboration will allow the cruise line the ability to expand its holiday offerings to a larger audience.

Although Royal Caribbean is working to expand their fly cruises, they pointed out that there were conflicts with Ryanair which will prevent the companies from working together. It was recently announced that Ryanair would be collaborating with Costa Cruises, which is owned by Carnival.

Jo Rzymowska who is the manager of the UK branch of Royal Caribbean pointed out that fly cruises are in decline at the moment. In order to breathe new life into this style of cruising, it was considered a necessity to partner with low cost airlines.

Rzymowska said “As an industry we have to crack air travel. The truth is not everyone wants to sail from the UK and not all our ships are based in the UK. Some agents have said ‘you can’t put a Celebrity guest on an easyJet flight’, but others said ‘why not?’ This is about giving customers choice.”

It was pointed out that travellers who purchased a fly cruise with Royal Caribbean would be able to relax a bit more over the status of their plans. If a flight gets cancelled it is the operator’s responsibility to resolve the problem, which eliminates some of the stress. Those considering a cruise with Royal Caribbean will be happy to know that the fuel surcharge for the line has also been discontinued.

Source: www.ttglive.com